Heat presses for transfer printing are known. U.S. Pat. No. 4,386,993 discloses a press in which the upper platen moves relative to the lower platen by way of a cam and rocking member.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,979,248 discloses a decal press with a motor driven upper platen.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,435,883 discloses a hand operated press with adjustment for the gap between the platens.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,474,633 discloses a press with a pneumatic engager to press the upper platen onto the lower platen and a timer mechanism.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,963,208 discloses a system for applying a decorative device using a swingable upper platen.
Often transfers are applied as part of a process of screen printing an ornamental pattern onto a garment. The heat press is positioned relative to one print station of a rotary printing machine of the type described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,795,189 and 5,031,527 which are examples of the type of machines used in screen printing garments. The garment is supported on a pallet of the screen printing machine and the pallet arm swings the pallet with the garment into position between the upper and lower platens of the heat press.
In the prior art heat presses the pressing force is applied to the upper platen and the lower platen may not be at an appropriate height to properly support the pallet arm. The forces applied may damage the pallet arm or bend it out of shape sufficient to impede the printing performance of the machine.
One attempt to overcome this problem is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,970,874 where both the upper and lower platens are movable relative to the heat press frame so that the upper and lower platens simultaneously press the pallet. In practice however it is difficult to achieve simultaneous contact and undue pressure on the pallet arms still occurs.
It is an object of this invention to overcome this problem.